The present invention relates to a machine and method for layering sheets of food material, more particularly to forming sheets of lasagne in layers, inserting a filling between the layers and cutting into portions automatically.
Normally, in the production of lasagne, the pasta is extruded, cut into sheets of a suitable width, blanched, cut and put piece by piece into an ALUTRAY device by hand with a filling of sauce between the pieces. This process has the following disadvantages :
(1) The pasta processing line is unduly long and occupies a great deal of space. PA1 (2) The process is labour intensive and requires at least five people on the line. PA1 (3) There are losses of pasta as a result of a lack of time for the operator to transport all the pieces of pasta to the Alutray. PA1 (4) There are several moving parts in the machine for transporting and layering the pasta sheets, which are prone to break down or wear out.
A machine which occupies less than half the length of a conventional machine, is labour saving, has no moving parts except for the basic conveyor which reduces or eliminates the costs for exchange of machine parts and possible shut-downs, and substantially prevents any losses in pasta, has been developed.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a machine for layering sheets of food material comprising a conveyor belt adapted to convey a plurality of thin sheets of flexible food material lying flat and parallel to one another, power means connected to the conveyor to advance the sheets of food material downstream and at least one substantially stationary spiral guide positioned above the conveyor belt with its longitudinal axis substantially horizontal and at an oblique angle to the direction of flow of the food material, adapted to enable a respective sheet of flexible food material to pass beneath it and then to be guided at least one complete turn around it so that the said sheet comes to lie above another sheet advancing downstream.
By "substantially stationary" we mean that the spiral guide should not rotate around its own axis but that the angle between the guide and the direction of flow of the food material ma be slightly adjustable.